SEC approves CREIT bond offering

MANILA, Philippines — The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the planned bond offering of Citicore Energy REIT Corp. (CREIT).

CREIT plans to raise P4.5 billion from the issuance of fixed–rate ASEAN Green Bonds, subject to the company’s completion of regulatory requirements.

Proceeds from the ASEAN green bonds will be exclusively applied to finance or refinance, in part or in full, new or existing eligible green projects.

The company, headed by its president and CEO Oliver Tan and which is part of the group of Megawide chairman Edgar Saavedra, expects to net up to P4.42 billion from the offer, assuming the oversubscription option is fully exercised.

Proceeds will be used for the acquisition of solar rooftops system for lease, a solar power operator, as well as the acquisition of properties that will be leased to solar power developers and operators.

With an existing portfolio of almost 200 hectares fully leased out to operating solar plants, CREIT said proceeds from the offering would be earmarked for up to 500 more hectares of land, which in turn will be leased out to solar power generators and operators.

Proceeds from the ASEAN green bonds will cement CREIT‘s position as the largest renewable energy landlord in the Philippines.

Eligible green projects include those for renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution prevention and control, environmentally sustainable management of living natural resources and land use, clean transportation, climate change adaptation, and green buildings.

The bonds will be offered at face value from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3, in time for listing at the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. by Feb. 10, according to the latest timetable submitted to the SEC.

CREIT tapped PNB Capital and Investment Corp. and SB Capital Investment Corp. as the joint issue managers, joint lead underwriters, and joint bookrunners for the offer.

The country’s first renewable energy REIT, CREIT posted a net income of P906.5 million from January to September 2022, almost eight times more than the amount it generated the same period last year.